Once bbpress activated site doesn't work

Has anyone experienced or know how to resolve this issue? I have installed bbPress version 2.0.2 (downloaded from older versions section) and the install goes fine, up until I click on ‘activate’ in the plugins.

After I do that I can no longer view my site or any page or link or anything at all, it’s just a blank page. I also noticed that in the admin section (which I can still se no problem), the ‘appearance’ menu, half the menu is missing (theme options, menu, backgrounds, header etc).

Click on ‘deactivate’ and all returns to normal.

My version of WP is 3.3.1 and I do not want to upgrade to 3.4.1 (this is why I downloaded an older version of bbPress that is supposedly compatible)

Is this just a compatibility issue with older versions etc or am I missing something on the install?

Sounds like you’re running out of memory, or some plugin conflict. bbPress is also only really intended to work with current WordPress versions; once you start mixing and matching versions, you’re on your own to troubleshoot.

Yeah well I deactivated all the oher plugins (only two of em anyway) and it still does it. I also tried it locally on my test machine, same versions of everything and same result. So I can rule out memory or plugin conflicts at least.

Really annoying, what’s the point of having the older versions for download then if it’s not really supposed to work with them? The page even gives you a ‘will it/won’t it work with…x version’ drop down to see if it’s compatible.

It’s not that it’s incompatible, it’s that supporting hundreds of combinations of multiple pieces of software is not something I’m able to do. There isn’t much that’s changed since 2.0, so I’m curious what the problem actually is.

Turn on WP_DEBUG, and see what errors are happening. Check your error logs on your server. There’s plenty of ways to get more detail, you’ll just need to do some investigation. If you find a bug, I’ll fix it.